Abstract
The Proposed Project, New England Aqua Ventus I (Aqua Ventus), would consist of the design, construction, operation, maintenance, and eventual decommissioning of a 12 MW offshore wind advanced technology demonstration project. The design details provided in this Proposed Project description are preliminary pending completion of technical studies and final design processes. Aqua Ventus would consist of:
- Construction of a cofferdam, a water-tight enclosure, at an existing industrial facility along the Penobscot River in Hampden, Maine;
- Three or four steel drag embedment anchors per turbine or three or four gravity anchors (i.e. large weighted anchors) per turbine and associated mooring lines;
- Two 0.5-mile long submarine cables to interconnect each turbine to a seabed hub;
- One 16.2-mile long submarine cable, including a fiber optic communications cable (export cable) connecting Aqua Ventus from the seabed hub to an existing Central Maine Power (CMP) distribution line located in Port Clyde within the town of St. George, Maine; and
- Installation of a connection vault and a grounding transformer between the subsea cable and the CMP line, and construction of a Static Reactive Power Compensation System (required for voltage regulation or stability) between the subsea cable and the first CMP customer on the CMP line.